舌尖上的航海丨第16集 “酒桶”的意外收獲

這天，“凱蒂”號駛經(jīng)赤道海域。

大廚皮特首次過赤道。按照赤道附近居民的習俗，首次過赤道的海員要舉行赤道的儀式；赤道附近的居民裝扮成各式各樣的“小鬼”，簇擁著身著龍袍頭戴龍帽的“龍王”，在激昂的鑼鼓聲中走上甲板，為首過赤道的海員進行洗禮和祈福，并按每個人的特征，“龍王”為其起個過赤道的綽號。

這是項古老而傳統(tǒng)的娛樂活動。

大廚皮特人高馬大，還有個圓圓的啤酒肚。“龍王”拍著皮特的大肚皮，笑著說：“酒桶！”

平時，就對自己肥胖懊惱的皮特一臉茫然和無奈，連聲叫苦道：“酒桶，酒桶，該死的酒桶！”

站在一旁的米奇爾船長，哈哈大笑起來：“好名，好名！”

米奇爾船長不僅幽默開朗知識淵博，還特意在船上設了間“海上書屋”，里面有許多有關航海知識的書籍。

“酒桶”是航海史上最早的船！“秤呢！米奇爾船長大聲叫到。

為了解開皮特心中對“酒桶”的疑惑，米奇爾船長專門安排人邦廚：“安心到書屋去找答案啦！”

剛上船不久的皮特還未光顧過近在咫尺的“海上書屋”呢！

終于，被“龍王”稱為“酒桶的”皮特，在“海上書屋”里找到了答案。

古時候，表示船的大小方法有兩種；貨艙的容積和貨物的重量。以谷物運輸為主的古埃及，用谷物的容積來表示船的大小。地中海沿岸國家對裝運酒的船舶，按裝多少酒桶來計算。而以裝運鹽、鉛、銅之類金屬為主的古希臘、羅馬都照貨物的重量交納各種稅收。

可謂五花八門，各行其是。

可是，為多裝貨，少交稅，船東動足了腦筋，也給船舶安全航行帶來隱患。

為了確保航行安全，人們對此重大的貨物，為防止過載制定了船舶吃水線。對比重小的輕泡貨，不允許在船員住艙和儲藏艙室裝貨。

于是，就有了船舶滿載吃水線的產(chǎn)生。

真正使船舶有了“船秤”是英國與法國酒類貿(mào)易產(chǎn)生的。也就是“酒桶”的功勞。

開始裝酒的桶大小不一。直到1416年之后，才逐漸統(tǒng)一起來；容積為34立方英尺，裝上酒的重量為2240磅的酒桶得到廣泛使用。船舶的大小以能裝載酒桶的數(shù)量來表示。例如100噸的船，說明該船能裝100個這樣的酒桶。

久而久之，2240磅的酒桶定為一噸，“酒桶”成了船舶的“船秤”。

但是，開始“酒桶”不是唯一萬能的“船秤”。北歐許多國家，比如瑞典、荷蘭等國卻以一輛馬車所截貨物來表示船的裝載能力。

隨著航海和貿(mào)易的發(fā)展，一種統(tǒng)一確定的方法來計算船舶的噸位的呼聲越來越高。

這時，威尼斯一位船老大，用船的龍骨長度乘以船寬再乘以船深，最后除以6的式子來表示船的容積。在英格蘭一個所謂的“老木匠”，則以船長、船寬相乘再除以96來表示船的容積。但是對裝載貨物船舶的丈量船深和龍骨十分困難。

直到1821年，英國政府提出：“噸位的丈量，不應按照目前的裝載能力為基礎，而應以內(nèi)部容積為基礎”的論斷。

這是以酒桶為丈量基礎的復活，“酒桶”再次被推上了“臺面”。

這種新方法是把甲板長度分為六等分，在這些等分處把深度分成五等分。在這些選定的等分點丈量寬度，算出甲板下的噸位，再與甲板上的噸位加起來，就是船的總噸位。

但是，這個辦法推行后，發(fā)現(xiàn)比“酒桶”方法丈量的結(jié)果大。

1849年，英國政府再次成立了專門委員會，制定了新的丈量法。

新的丈量法是由該專門委員會主席喬治﹒穆爾薩姆提出的，被稱為“穆爾薩姆法。”

“穆爾薩姆法”是以盡可能丈量船舶的內(nèi)部容積為目的，包括甲板以下容積和甲板上做為旅客、貨物以及儲物間的所有容積。

這種方法很快在歐洲各地興起。

但是，實踐過程中，船員住艙、儲物間、燃油艙……不能裝載貨物。

人們開始把這些不能載貨的容積從總噸位上減去，就有了“凈噸位”的“亮相?！?/p>

1872年，在君士坦丁堡專門召開的國際會議上確定了這個新的噸位丈量規(guī)則：“穆爾薩姆法。”

在這個新規(guī)則執(zhí)行初期，各國雖然都采用了“穆爾薩姆法”，卻各自頒發(fā)船舶噸位證書，由于丈量時無差異，相互間承認對方的船舶證書。

“酒桶”規(guī)則得到了真正的認可和執(zhí)行。

1969年，國際海事組織（IMO）正式確定了“穆爾薩姆法”的法律地位。

“酒桶”在制定船舶噸位過程中的作用，至今常常被海員們津津樂道。

“酒桶”皮特的額外收獲，成了“凱蒂”號船員茶余飯后的談資。

The cargo ship Katherine was sailing through equatorial waters on this fateful day.

It was the first time Paul, the Katherine’s head chef, had ever sailed on the equator.

According to the cultural customs of countries near the heated region, sailors who crossed the

equator for the first time had to participate in a Line-Crossing Ceremony.

Usually, the locals of the towns and cities near the equator dressed up as magical

creatures with the Golden Dragon at their center, and marched onto the ship while playing a

ceremonial drum beat. They put the young seafarers under a series of trials, and performed a

welcoming ritual before giving each new sailor a nickname.

This is an old but greatly entertaining tradition for the townspeople who lived on the

islands near the equator.

The new crewmen of the Katherine were initially nervous about their Line-Crossing

Ceremony, but ended up having a lot of fun. When they got to the nickname segment of the

ritual, the Golden Dragon went up to Chef Paul, looked at his burly figure and his beer belly,

and declared, “Wine Barrel!”

Paul, who never really minded his plump body before, suddenly felt insecure. He looked

down at his midsection, and exclaimed, “Wine barrel! My stupid wine barrel!”

But Captain Mickey and his crewmates stood next to Paul, patted him on the shoulder,

laughed, and said, “Wine barrel is a great nickname!”

Captain Mickey was known around the SS Katherine as a friendly, optimistic, and

lighthearted captain who also had an interest in nautical knowledge and books. Before setting

sail for the first time, Captain Mickey converted one of the craft’s storage units into a library,

complete with many novels and encyclopedias about seafaring and maritime history.

“The wine barrel is instrumental to nautical history!” Captain Mickey told Paul,

“Without wine barrels, the ships that we know and love today woul be very different.”

Paul shook his head, knowing that Captain Mickey was only trying to lift his spirits. In

order to prove his word to Paul, Captain Mickey told Paul and his fellow sailors to go to the

ship’s library and look for answers.

Since Paul had not been traveling with the Katherine for very long, it was his first time

in the library. Though the room that the library stood in was small, its contents were vast and

expansive, as if thousands of worlds and histories could fit into one tiny room onboard a ship.

After spending many hours of his free time inside the humble library, Paul finally unearthed

the story of the wine barrel.

Before the development of modern technology, there were only two ways of deciphering

the size and weight of a steamship: the volume of the storage areas and the weight of the

cargo held. In Ancient Egypt, cargo ships mostly transported crops and food contents, so the

volume of grain was mainly used to measure the volume of the ship. Similarly, vessels from

the islands in the Mediterranean frequently carried alcohol, so the barrels of wine the storage

was able to contain were used to measure the ship’s volume and weight. And for nations that

shipped salt, lead, copper, and metals, like Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, the weight of

the metals they brought were even used to calculate taxes.

These techniques were generally efficient. However, they allowed shipowners to think

of ways to transport more cargo at lower costs and to pay lower taxes, which brought a

certain degree of danger to long distance travel. So in order to maintain the safety of

shiphands and crew members, officials announced that a waterline had to be drawn on the

outside of every ship. This way, they could easily tell whether or not a ship was overweight.

But the creation of measuring units for the ship’s weight was actually invented by

English and French wine trading companies, and it was all thanks to wine barrels.

When wine barrels were first created, they were not uniform in size. Barrels of all

shapes and sizes existed until 1416, when their standard volume became 34 cubic feet and

could hold wine weighing a maximum of 2240 pounds. From then on, the shipping capacity

of ships became measured in the number of wine barrels it could withhold without going

under the water line. For example, if a ship could carry 100 barrels of wine, then its weight

was 100 barrels.

Eventually, with wine barrels weighing 2240 as the guideline, barrels became the most

commonly used scale of measurement for ships, but not the only one. Many other European

countries, like Switzerland and Holland, used the amount of cargo a horse wagon could carry

to indicate the capacity of ships.

With the development of nautical navigation and trade, the call for a uniform

international scale became more and more urgent. To search for a clearer method of

measurement, a Venetian shipowner measured the depth and width of his ship, multiplied

them together, and divided it by 6 to calculate the volume of the vessel. Similarly, a carpenter

from England multiplied the depth and width of his craft and divided it by 96. But neither of

them knew if their measurements were accurate.

It wasn’t until 1821 when the English government asserted that the capacity of cargo

ships shouldn’t be measured on the basis of how much cargo was currently in the ship, but by

its internal volume and the total of what it could contain.

This new method involves dividing the length of a cargo ship’s deck into six equal

sections, and then measuring the depth of these equal parts and dividing them into five

different sections. The volume of these sections plus the volume of the parts of the ship both

under and above the deck yielded the total volume of the entire ship.

After the implementation of this method, shipowners found that the total volume of their

vessels were greater than the volume that they calculated before with barrels.

In 1894, the British government attempted to set up another committee to find a new

measuring method for a craft’s volume.

After the committee worked together to brainstorm the perfect way to measure the

capacity of ships, a new technique was suggested by a member of the committee named

George Moorsom.

Moorsom set a number of rules that shipowners needed to adhere to when measuring

ships. For example, the internal volume of each craft had to be divided by 100 cubic feet to

produce a gross register tonnage, and the net register tonnage was the volume remaining after

subtracting the volume of spaces used for machinery and other non-revenue producing

functions.

Most European shipowners accepted this method of measurement, and it became

widespread. In 1872, at an international conference in Constantinople, shipowners from all

across the globe endorsed the measurement, and officially named it the Moorsom Method.

At the beginning of the implementation of the Moorsom Method, although all nations

adopted the technique, each issued a different certification of ship capacity, but since the

measurement procedure was consistent, countries quickly accepted each others’ certificates.

The ship-measuring technique that was at first brought forth became official.

In 1969, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) cemented the Moorsom Method

as international law.

In the process of becoming an important measurement law, the wine barrel was often the

punchline of many sailor jokes. But now, Paul and his crewmates recognized the value of his

nickname and saw the seemingly mundane barrels in a new light. The fascinating history of

the ship measurement became a beloved anecdote amongst the sailors on the Katherine.